People who treat animals cruelly deserve a special place in Hell.  This morning as I was buying a bottle of water from the cafeteria, I heard a news story on the TV about a guy who “kicked his cat like a football.”

“Police charged a South Side man with animal cruelty after officers say they watched him take a running start and kick a kitten 15-18 feet into the air before raising his arms to signal a successful field goal.”  Feel free to read more here.

The animal shelter that is currently giving this cat medical care commented that it is friendly and loving.  Even after being treated horribly by a human, this cat is still affectionate.  Pure, unconditional love is what pets are, and what makes mistreating them all the more terrible.

Sorry for the rant, but this really pissed me off.  I am by no means an animal rights activist.  I eat meat [I could never truly go vegetarian because I love Taco Bell just too damn much] and I certainly won’t chastise someone for wearing a fur coat.  We can kill animals for sustenance and warmth [or even sport, if hunting is your thing], but that doesn’t give us the right to treat any of them cruelly.

In lighter-but-still-cat-related news, apparently someone has given “my cat has the hiccups” as an excuse to be late for work.  I still don’t see why it would cause the person to be late, unless he followed it around trying to scare the hiccups out of it.  Good luck there, buddy.  It’s practically impossible to scare a cat–they can always hear you coming, unless they are asleep and then they simply don’t care what you are trying to do with that blanket.

Not that I have tried or anything.

It’s been awhile since I posted a cute cat picture, so…

You’re welcome.

We feed Milo and Ellie Purina Kitten Chow.  Always have since we brought them home.  Ellie has this weird thing where, if the food has been sitting in the bowl for more than a couple hours, she will not eat it.  She’ll get all up in your face and act like she’s starving even though there is still some food in the bowl.

Usually they both great pretty excited about meal time [once in the morning when I wake up and once in the evening, around dinner time].  They both run over as I scoop a cup of food into the bowl and change out their water.  Ellie always gets to eat first–I don’t know whether Milo is a supergentleman or has just been cowed into sloppy seconds.  Milo will lie on the floor patiently and wait until Ellie is completely done.  Like, even if you picked Ellie up and carried her away [and I have, you know, in the name of science] Milo will not eat.  He will wait until she comes back and then stops eating of her own accord.

A couple of weeks ago, they both started showing less enthusiasm over being fed.  Ellie would sniff the new food and walk away, instead of diving in.  One night she started eating and then puked.  It’s the first time either of them had puked, so I was a little concerned.  We figured that she had gone too long without eating and once she started up again made herself sick.  We then began to wonder if something was wrong with this particular bag of cat food.

The next day I bought a different bag of Purina Kitten Chow to see if this would alleviate the problem.  It did not.  The day after that, Mr. W and I bought both Iams Kitten Chow and Meow Mix to see if perhaps they had decided they no longer liked Purina.  They didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about either.  It had been several days and we couldn’t figure out what they wanted to eat.  The third day, on a crazy whim, I scooped some of the original Purina Kitten Chow into their bowl.

They gobbled it up.  Clearly this has all been some sort of elaborate mind game wherein the cats try to determine how long it takes before I am driven completely insane.

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In other news, two announcements: First, we have finally finished paying off the car!  Yay!  Now our only bill is my monstrous student loan.  [Something I have now dubbed, That Which Shall Not Be Named.]  It shall go on, not being named, for quite a damn while.

Secondly, my friend Tim has started a blog that’s going to work very much like a choose your own adventure.  He’ll start a story and readers get to vote on what should happen next.  I think it sounds like an awesomely fun idea and I might even get to write a guest post over there.  If you’d like to be involved in the creative process, head on over and subscribe to the updates!  If you do, you’ll lose weight and be invited to parties more!*

*Not scientifically proven.

Took some pictures of the snow yesterday.  The situation hasn’t changed much, which is why I’m stuck home today as well.

First thing I saw when I woke up. The window is completely covered.

The view out our front window. It was still snowing and didn't stop 'til about noon.

Again, out the front window.

Our back door.

The front door. The landlady has a guy to shovel snow and he did a great job.

Cars parked along our street.

Our street. Found out yesterday that the city does not plow it. Really hoping they make an exception this time.

Be glad you aren't the owner of these cars!

Big snowdrift to the right is why we can't see out our window. See the second to last drift in the back? Yeah, that's where we parked.

Walkway next to our building. I just thought it looked fun.

And then I wanted to finish this off with some cuteness:

Milo on the left and Ellie on the right.

Awwwww!

I tried switching the computer mouse to be a left-handed one [I am left-handed] and had to give up after about an hour.  Using the mouse in my left hand is clumsier because it’s just not used to it.  So I felt like I was mousing through molasses.  Also, I was forgetting random things, though this could be equally contributed to the fact that I am slightly sleep-deprived.

Either way, it’s a right-handed mouse again.  Maybe I can try on another day when I am not so tired.

Yesterday Mr. W and I went to IKEA to buy a dining table.  The one we currently have was taken from a closed business for free and can comfortably accomodate one person.  Maybe one and a half.  It could get pretty crowded for both Mr. W and myself and you can forget about hosting a board game night at our place.  But no longer!  Our current table, while not huge, is still laughably large in our little kitchen.  I want to say the table is about 2 feet wide and 4 feet long, but I have no concept of dimensions based on reality.  I don’t recommend taking my word for it on this.  It’s weird because I am good at spatial things.  I can eyeball something and tell you if it will fit in a certain space, but I couldn’t accurately tell you how many inches or feet it was to save my life.

We also purchased a new bed frame in an attempt to foil the cats.  That probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, so I will explain.  The cats ripped a whole in the underside of the box springs and like to climb inside and sleep in there.  Of course, before sleeping they have to be as noisy as possible getting in and out and getting comfortable.  This is very annoying when you are trying to sleep.  And I’m sure it is also some sort of physical danger to the cats.  A second reason we need a new frame is because our current one squeaks loudly at the slightest movement.  [I move around a lot in my sleep.]  We went to a different furniture store [we don't trust IKEA with something like that] and found a bed that has wide slats running across the bottom.  There is no way the cats can fit through them, so take that felines!  We win!  Or, rather, we will win on Friday when the frame is delivered!